New tanker will increase firefighting capabilities

To keep things cool when the heat is on, Fall Creek Township and the Town of Fishers are pursuing a new tanker truck to serve areas that do not have fire hydrants.

Currently, 20 percent of the area that the Fishers Fire Dept. serves lacks fire hydrants. Of that land, 80 percent is in Fall Creek Township.

Doug Allman, Fall Creek Township Board president, said he had wanted a truck of this type for years.

The go-ahead to purchase the truck was given by the Fall Creek Township Board at its Jan. 17 meeting, according to Allman.

A tanker truck, or water tanker, is designed to get the needed supply of water to fires in areas that don’t have that supply.

“(The water tanker) is going to increase our capability tremendously to serve areas which don’t have fire hydrants and will actually be able to make a difference,” Fire Chief Steve Orusa said. “So we’re excited about that and grateful to Fall Creek Township.”

The proposed new truck’s water capacity is 3,000 gallons, double the capacity of FFD’s current tanker that sits on an almost 50-year-old body.

Multiple trucks of this type are needed for some fires, Allman said.

According to the proposal provided by Orusa, a new water tanker coasts about $280,000 to build.

The new tanker would be stationed at the new FFD station under construction at 104th Street and Florida Road, known as Station 96.

Orusa said the target completion date for the new station was April 30; however, the new truck won’t be ready to go until the fall.

The capital that will pay for the new truck comes from a Fall Creek Township fund specifically established for similar expenditures, Allman said.

He said the township no longer collected for that fund, as the township itself continued to shrink and the need for a large cash fund diminished.

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Dan Domsic

Dan is the managing editor of Current in Fishers. You can reach him at dan@youarecurrent.com.